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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Saturday, March 20, 2010

Recently, there had been a lot of talk about Girl Scout cookies, and those sweet, little girls standing at tables with stacks of cookie boxes are pretty hard to turn down. Everyone has a favorite Girl Scout cookie. I’ve always liked the Do-Si-Dos and Samoas, but the hands-down most popular has to be the Thin Mint. I had heard so much exicitement about them lately, I thought it would be fun to make them from scratch. I looked through a few books and found some reasonable facsimiles, but the one that seemed closest to the original in appearance and texture was the thin mint cookies from Super Natural Cooking. The chocolate wafers are made with whole wheat pastry flour and powdered sugar, and they’re dipped into mint-flavored melted chocolate.

The cookie dough was mixed and then wrapped in plastic and left to chill in the freezer for 20 minutes to make it easier to handle. Still, it was a sticky dough, and in the book, Heidi suggests rolling it out between layers of plastic wrap. I could tell that rolling it on a floured surface would have caused a lot of extra flour to be incorporated, but with big sheets of plastic, rolling the dough was a breeze. It was rolled to a thickness somewhere between one quarter inch and an eighth inch. Too thin and the cookies would have been brittle; too thick and they wouldn’t have had a nice crunchiness. The cut cookies were baked and allowed to cool. Then, semi-sweet chocolate was melted and flavored with mint extract. A tip to keep in mind is to add a little extract at a time and taste as you go. I added the extract in one half teaspoon increments and ended up adding a total of two teaspoons. But, each brand is different so, unfortunately, tasting is a task you just have to do. With a face full of chocolate, I set about dipping the cookies and then letting them dry on parchment paper.

The good news about making your own thin mints is that you can choose the ingredients that go into them. In the cookies, I used Van Houten cocoa powder from France (a lovely gift that I continue to enjoy). And, for the chocolate coating, I used 58 percent cacao El Rey feves. You can also decide how minty you want them to be. It’s hard to say no to those little girl scouts selling their cookies, but the homemade version is pretty irresistible too.

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comments:

These are my husband's absolute favorite GS cookies (mine, too, after I developed PB probs, precluding consumption of my previous faves, Tagalongs). Your version looks, and undoubtedly tastes, even better than the originals! I need to get my greedy hands on this book and recipe immediately.

Since I was a little girl, Thin Mints have been my absolute favorite cookie. Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, seeing green clad Girl Scouts (looking quite minty, I might add) coming to the door always filed my siblings and me with utter delight.

Over the many years I have purchased and eaten Thin Mints as an adult (you can't eat just one), I have discovered--as most fans of the crisp, minty confection can attest--the cookies have shrunk in size.

I have often considered making them myself—so I can have them anytime I wish and any size I wish—and now your post has encouraged me to do so. Of course, I'm not entirely sure I should thank you for that. :o)

that top photo is just stunning...so simple but delectable these cookies! chocolate and mint..of my favorite combinations asnd I agree...Van Houten cocoa powder is beautiful! wonderful "scout cookies"!Ronelle

HH: To get the chocolate shiny, I cross my fingers as it melts.;) But really-- I'm not exactly sure, but I believe it helps to not melt the chocolate all the way over the heat of a double boiler. Remove it just before it's all melted and stir, stir, stir until it's smooth.

Thin Mints are my favorite hands down, and I am afraid to confess, I could easily consume a single box in a sitting if I was not careful - I cannot just stop at one. Thankfully most cookies don't have that effect on me.

Super Natural Cooking is a great book, and I love the idea you can make your own - I've tried to avoid that for the reason stated above, but maybe I can be brave and exhibit some self control!

I always loved girl scout cookies...haven't had them in a while but samoas were a definite favorite. Thin mints are perfect for when that mint chocolate chip craving hits (which it does...about once a week). These definitely look better than the "real thing". The blog Baking Bites has created copycat recipes for quite a few girl scout cookies. You might want to check out that site!

I have intrigued to admit I've always been intrigued by the idea of Girl Scout cookies. I always saw them on tv shows and wondered about them but of course we don't get them here so thankyou for sharing the recipe Lisa! :D

Thin mints are my fave after dinner "dessert" --light and refreshing. They are specially good after a roasted lamb dinner like the one I made last week. I'm doing a blog giveaway too if anyone of your readers is interested.

Did you freeze any of them? I confess that when I buy actual Girl Scout Thin Mints, I put them in the freezer. I did it so I wouldn't eat them all at once. But then I started liking how they tasted when still frozen! ;)

These look fantastic! I was just doing a quick search for Baking Powder's post on homemade Thin Mints and your post popped up! I made a batch of homemade samoas (my fav). Somehow I missed out on the whole homemade GS phenom until recently.